Over 100,000 Wealthy Migrants Moved Countries in 2018

14 May 2019

The recent AfrAsia Bank Global Wealth Migration Review 2019 revealed that High net worth individuals, or HNWI for short, are increasingly mobile. The report findings concluded that over 108,000 of the richest people left the country of their residence at the start of 2018 to move elsewhere. In 2017, the respective figure was 95,000. The findings came through a joint project between AfrAsia and New World Wealth, a market research and consultancy firm.

The report concluded that that:

Over 14 million people own 1 million US dollars or more in assets

A further 560,000 people own 10 million US dollars or more in assets

A further 25,000 people own 100 million US dollars or more in assets

There are 2,140 billionaires globally

Where Are the Richest People Heading?

The top destination was Australia which accepted residency of 12,000 HNWIs last year. Second was the USA at 10,000 and Canada came in third at 4,000 HNWIs.

Some of the usual destinations made up the remainder of the top 10 list including the Caribbean, Switzerland, Israel, and New Zealand. Some European Union countries included Greece, Portugal, and Spain, while Singapore was the only Far Eastern country on the list. It also came fifth in the world’s top cities in fifth place with New York topping the list.

The Popularity of UAE and Dubai

Of particular note was the United Arab Emirates. UAE performed strongly within the list. The country attracted some 2,000 HNWIs in 2018. More than half of those had a single destination in mind – Dubai. Most are attracted by the ease of setting up a business in the country and its strong global trade links, acting as a great gateway between the European Union, North America, and the Far East.

Which Countries are HNWIs Leaving?

China has always historically seen emigrants leaving for other destinations and 2018 was no exception; they lost 15,000. Russian came in second with 7,000 people leaving the country for elsewhere in the world. India was third with 5,000 emigrants. Closer to the Middle East, Turkey lost large numbers, as did France in the European Union.

Brexit troubles meant that the UK has gone from a net recipient of HNWIs to losing nearly 7,000 HNWIs in the last two years. 4,000 of those left in in 2017 and the remaining 3,000 left last year. It is believed the ongoing uncertainty over Brexit is just one issue with new taxes on non-doms also impacting.